refuse her, for he had very recently sworn an oath of obedience.
This extraordinary war council of which I was the only witness had barely begun, before the new regent of Egypt imperiously banished me from the cabin, and sent me to guard the door and turn away all other visitors. The last glimpse that I had of them as I drew the heavy curtain was as they fell into each other's arms. So great was their need, and so long had they been denied, that they rushed at each other like deadly enemies joining in mortal combat, rather than lovers.
The happy sounds of this engagement persisted for most of the night, and I was relieved that we were not at anchor but driving on up-river in haste to join with Lord Nembet. The clunk and swish of the oars, the boom of the drum setting the stroke and the chants of the rowers on their benches almost drowned out the tumult in the royal cabin.
When he came to the poop-deck at the change of the night-watch, Tanus had the smile and the satisfied air of a general who had just won a famous victory. My mistress followed him on deck shortly afterwards, and she glowed with a new and ethereal beauty that startled even me, who was accustomed to her loveliness. For the rest of that day she was loving and kind to all around her, and found numerous occasions to consult the commander of her army. Thus Prince Memnon and I were able to spend most of the day together, a circumstance that suited both of us very well.
With the prince's dubious assistance I had already started carving a series of wooden models. One of these was a chariot and wooden horses. Another was a wheel on an axle that I was experimenting with.
Memnon stood on tiptoe to watch the wheel spin smoothly on its miniature hub.
'A solid disc is too heavy, don't you agree, Mem? See how swiftly it loses momentum and slows down.'
'Give it to me!' he demanded, and snatched at the spinning disc. It flew form his chubby 'fingers, dashed to the deck and shattered into four almost equal segments.
'You are a Hyksos ruffian,' I told him sternly, which he seemed to take as a great compliment, and I went down on my knees to gather up my poor model.
The broken segments still lay in a circular pattern, and, before my hand touched them, I had a strange aberration of vision. In the eye of my mind, the solid segments of wood became spaces, while the cracks between them appeared solid.
'Sweet Breath of Horus! You've done it, Mem.' I hugged him. 'A rim supported by struts from the hub! When you are Pharaoh, what other miracles will you perform for us?'
Thus did the Prince Royal, Memnon the first of that name, Ruler of the Dawn?with just a little help from his friend? conceive of the spoke wheel. Little did I dream then that one day the two of us together would ride to glory upon it.
WE CAME UPON THE FIRST OF THE EGYPTIAN dead before noon. He came floating down the river with his bloated belly buoying him up, and his face gazing blankly at the sky. There was a black crow perched upon his chest. It picked out his eyes and threw back its head to swallow them one at a time.
In silence we stood at the ship's rail and watched the dead man float serenely by.
'He wears the kilt of the Lion Guards,' Tanus said quietly.
'The Lions are the spear-head of Nembet's army. I pray to Horus that there will be no others following this one down the river.'
But there were. Ten more, then a hundred. More and still more, until the surface of the river from bank to bank was carpeted by floating corpses. They were thick as the leaves of the water-hyacinth which clog the irrigation canals in summer.
At last we found one who still lived. He was a captain of the Lion Guards who had been seconded to Nembet's staff. He clung to a mat of floating papyrus stems in the current.
We fished him from the water and I attended to his wounds. The head of a stone mace had shattered the bones of his shoulder and he would never use that arm again.
When he had recovered sufficiently to speak, Tanus squatted beside his mattress.
'What of Lord Nembet?'
'Lord Nembet is slain, and all his staff with him,' the captain told him hoarsely.
'Did Nembet not receive my despatch warning him of the Hyksos?'
'He received it on the eve of the battle, and he laughed as he read it.'
'Laughed?' demanded Tanus. 'How could he laugh?'
'He said that the puppy was destroyed?forgive me, Lord Tanus, but that was what he called you?and now sought to cover his stupidity and cowardice with spurious messages. He said that he would fight the battle in the classic manner.'
'The arrogant old fool,' Tanus lamented. 'But tell me the rest of it.'
'Lord Nembet deployed upon the east bank, with the river at his back. The enemy fell upon us like the wind, and drove us into the water.'
'How many of our men escaped?' Tanus asked softly.
'I believe that I am the only one of those who went ashore with Lord Nembet who survived. I saw no other left alive. The slaughter upon the river-bank was beyond my power to describe to you.'
'All our most famous regiments decimated,' Tanus mourned. 'We are left defenceless, except for our ships. What happened to Nembet's fleet? Was it anchored in midstream?'
'Lord Nembet anchored the greater part of the fleet, but he beached fifty galleys in our rear.'
'Why would he do that?' Tanus stormed. 'The safety of the ships is the first principle of our standard battle plan.'
